Get List of Keys from Dictionary in Python (4 Examples)
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to get a list from your dictionary keys in Python.
The content of the tutorial is structured as follows:
Let’s go straight to the examples!
Create Sample Data
As the first step in this tutorial, we will create an example dictionary to use in the following examples.
my_dict = {'apple':1, 'pineapple': 5, 'watermelon': 3, 'banana': 4} print(my_dict) # {'apple': 1, 'pineapple': 5, 'watermelon': 3, 'banana': 4}
As you can see, we have created my_dict
, a sample dictionary that contains four key-value pairs. Let’s see how to print the keys as a list!
Example 1: Return Dictionary Keys as List via keys() Method & list() Function
In this first example, we will use the keys() method to retrieve the keys in my_dict
.
keys_list = list(my_dict.keys()) print(keys_list) # ['apple', 'pineapple', 'watermelon', 'banana']
As shown in the previous Python output, the keys() method returns a view object of the dictionary’s keys, which we have converted into a list using the list() function.
Example 2: Return Dictionary Keys as List via for Loop
Example 2 shows how to return the dictionary keys as a list using a for loop.
keys_list = [] for key in my_dict: keys_list.append(key) print(keys_list) # ['apple', 'pineapple', 'watermelon', 'banana']
Notice that, first, we have defined an empty list called keys_list
. Then, the for loop iterated over the keys in my_dict
and appended each key to keys_list
.
Example 3: Return Dictionary Keys as List via List Comprehension
This method shows how to use list comprehension to create a new list that contains our dictionary’s keys.
keys_list = [key for key in my_dict] print(keys_list) # ['apple', 'pineapple', 'watermelon', 'banana']
Here, we have used list comprehension to create a new list named keys_list
, which contains all the keys in my_dict
.
Example 4: Return Dictionary Keys as List via * Operator
This last method is only available in Python 3.5 and later. It uses the *
operator to unpack the keys of the dictionary to a new list as follows.
keys_list = [*my_dict] print(keys_list) # ['apple', 'pineapple', 'watermelon', 'banana']
As shown, the [*my_dict]
expression provides the same output as in the previous examples.
Video, Further Resources & Summary
Do you need more explanations on how to print a dictionary’s keys as a list in Python? Then you should have a look at the following YouTube video of the Statistics Globe YouTube channel.
The YouTube video will be added soon.
Furthermore, I encourage you to check out some other tutorials on Statistics Globe:
- Add Keys to List of Dictionaries in Python
- Merge Sort Dictionary in Python
- Find Index of List Element Conditionally in Python
- Append to 2D List in Python
- Python Overview
This post has shown how to get a list of keys from a dictionary in Python language. In case you have further questions, you may leave a comment below.
This page was created in collaboration with Paula Villasante Soriano. Please have a look at Paula’s author page to get further information about her academic background and the other articles she has written for Statistics Globe.
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